Delhi High Court upholds sentence to tuition teacher for raping minor

The psychological and emotional distress suffered by a seven-year-old would not wean out of her system for several years, the Delhi High Court has said while upholding the conviction of a tuition teacher who had sexually assaulted his minor student.

Justice Indermeet Kaur upheld the sentence of five years jail term awarded to the teacher and said that "it is a sentence which cannot really be faulted by noting the nature of the crime".

"The victim, a 7-year-old girl has been attacked not only in body but also in mind; the psychological and emotional distress suffered by her would probably not wean out from her system for years together," the court said.

The court's direction comes on the appeal of a man who was convicted on rape charges of his minor student. The mother of the victim had filed a complaint that on May 22, 2008, the accused had tried to rape his daughter and also threatened to kill her if she disclosed the incident to someone or resist the act.

On the day of the incident, when the mother came in the room, she saw the accused trying to molest her daughter. He fled the spot on seeing her following which she went to the police and reported the matter.

The court held that the testimony of the victim is truthful and she has not deviated from her stand since the occurrence of the incident.

"In her cross-examination, she had stuck to her stand; she did not deviate. Her credibility could not be tarnished. She repeated the manner in which the accused used to perform the unholy act upon her person.

"He did this act several times earlier also in fact around 50 times. He used to bolt the door of the room before doing the act. She did not disclose this incident to her parents as the accused had threatened her that he would kill her and her parents in case she told any person about it," the court said while pronouncing the judgment.

"There are no mitigating circumstances in favour of the appellant to give him sentence lesser than that which has already been awarded to him. The appeal is without any merit," the court said while dismissing the appeal.